 |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
FALL 2022 HOUSING MARKET PREDICTIONS
 After a tumultuous summer for real estate, autumn is nearly here. As of mid-September, the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage average is hovering just north of 6 percent, and skyrocketing home prices are finally starting to drop, albeit slowly. Housing inventory remains tight, too. These indicators spell both good and bad news for fall homebuyers and sellers. Wondering which directions the housing market will head in as the leaves start to change? Curious where interest rates will land? Worried about a potential crash? Read on for fall housing predictions from the pros. WILL THE HOUSING MARKET STAY HOT? The market seems to be cooling dramatically, and Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence for ATTOM Data Solutions, says the signs are undeniable. Case in point: July marked the seventh consecutive month in which existing home sales were lower than the month prior - down 20.2 percent year-over-year and 5.9 percent from the previous month, according to the most recent National Association of Realtors data. “In July, the annualized rate of home sales dropped below 5 million homes, which represents a decline of over 1 million home sales compared to 2021,” Sharga says. “I expect both new and existing home sales will probably continue to decelerate through the fall and winter months, with home price appreciation likely to end 2022 in the low single digits - likely in the 2 to 3 percent range.” He notes that this decline is almost entirely due to the impact that increased mortgage rates have had on affordability. Purchase loan applications are running about 23 percent lower than they were at this time a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Kenon Chen, executive vice president of corporate strategy at Clear Capital, agrees with Sharga’s assessment. “Clear Capital’s August Home Data Index Market Report shows almost a 5 percent slowdown in home price appreciation compared to July,” he says. “Year-over-year appreciation also fell to 16.7 percent, from 20 percent in July. And inventory has risen steeply, with the number of active listings now around 550,000, which we haven’t seen since July of 2020. But even with the price slowdown, double-digit year-over-year home price appreciation coupled with continued high mortgage rates could continue to cool down the market.” Consider, as well, that further price corrections on homes for sale may be coming. Fitch Ratings’ 2nd quarter 2022 Sustainable Home Price Report estimates that home prices in 89 percent of the country’s major metropolitan areas are overvalued. If a major lowering of prices does come to pass this fall, it could allow the many millennial homebuyers who have been priced out of the market to finally get a chance at homeownership.
Read the full article on Bankrate.com.
|
  |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
